A's NEW ERA / LEWIS WOLFF / A fan since childhood finally gets to own a team

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 31, 2005

Photo: JOHN STOREY

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The Oakland Athletics react to Adam Melhuse's single in the bottom of the 10th inning that drove in the winning run against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night, September 23, 2003. With the win and the Seattle Mariner's loss in Anaheim, Oakland clinched the American League Division West Title. The A's vs. the Texas Rangers at the Network Coliseum.
9/23/03 in Oakland. JOHN STOREY / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

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The Oakland Athletics react to Adam Melhuse's single in the bottom of the 10th inning that drove in the winning run against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night, September 23, 2003. With the ... more

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** FILE ** Los Angeles real estate developer Lewis Wolff tours the Oakland A's baseball stadium in Oakland, Calif., Friday, March 11, 2005. Baseball's owners unanimously approved the sale of the Oakland Athletics to Wolff on Wednesday, March 30, 2005, all but finalizing a deal in the works for about a year. (AP Photo/The Oakland Tribune, Ray Chavez) less

The boys knew another kid whose dad sold insurance to the team owner, and somehow that equated to front-row tickets along the first-base line.

"Best seats in the house," recalled Shapiro, who remains tight with Wolff.

Six decades later, Wolff's back in the front row, and all he had to do was buy the Oakland A's for $180 million.

The deal was approved Wednesday when baseball owners voted unanimously on a conference call to OK the sale of the team to Wolff's group, which includes his son, Keith, and billionaire John Fisher, son of Gap founder Donald Fisher.

The books will close today for the ownership team of Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann, who acquired the A's in November 1995 when they agreed to pay $72 million as well as take on millions more in deferred salaries according to Schott.

Wolff's share is about 10 percent, and he'll call the shots as managing general partner despite Fisher's majority stake. Wolff said he remained faithful to building a new ballpark in the Coliseum parking lot despite his ties to San Jose and the belief of South Bay business leaders that Wolff's purchase could mean the A's were moving south.

"Lew's always had an interest in baseball," said Shapiro, who runs a real estate company in Missouri but has never done business with Wolff. "We played as kids, and he played in fantasy camps. We've been close friends for 60 years, but I've kidded him: What do you know about running a baseball team? He said (a) he'll learn, and (b) it's the best-run organization in the majors, and he's keeping everyone."

Wolff, 69, lives with his wife, Jeane, in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. He is the father of three and grandfather of two. He has some experience in pro sports -- he previously bought into the Golden State Warriors, hockey's St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Missions, a now-defunct independent baseball team -- but that's a tiny part of his beefy resume.

His main business is investing in ritzy hotels, including the Fairmont in San Francisco and San Jose and dozens of others, as chairman and CEO of Wolff Urban Development and co-chairman of Maritz, Wolff & Co. He's a pioneer of San Jose's downtown redevelopment, dating to the late '60s.

He has substantial investments around the country and abroad and once bought into Toronto's SkyDome baseball stadium -- "my worst deal," he said, admitting to a rare beating. He has big-name partners, including a Saudi prince and a star of the sitcom "M*A*S*H."

But according to those who know him, he doesn't flaunt his power and wealth, remains personable and approachable and is still quick with a quip.

"I haven't seen him change," said former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery, who has known Wolff for more than three decades. "He has two key ingredients to succeed in big-time sports -- he's very smart, and has a great sense of humor. His word is solid. I would rather take a handshake from Lew Wolff than a 30-page contract from most developers I dealt with for eight years as mayor."

Wolff's success in business "hasn't gone to his head," Shapiro said. "He's the same Lew. He says he doesn't like publicity, but he can't help it. Once in a while, he'll get his face on the cover of a magazine."

If Wolff frowns on publicity, he's in for a shock. The attention given to a baseball owner, not to mention the accompanying criticism, far exceeds that of someone who cuts ribbons and poses for pictures at a hotel ground-breaking.

Indeed, Wolff hopes Billy Beane, the popular A's general manager responsible for personnel decisions, will remain the front man of the organization and is believed to have cut a long-term deal with Beane, who had an out in his contract if Schott and Hofmann sold the team.

"I enjoy him a lot. He's a good person," Wolff said. "We're very confident with the way the team is working. This isn't something that needs to be fixed. It would be different with a huge debt and 50 different contracts you couldn't get out of. But Steve and Ken did a good job with the team.

"The way I see it, we're buying a very well run business. We're in it for the long term. We'll bring in additional investors, and we hope to make money. To me, baseball touches so many lives, and being a part of it at this level is really exciting."

Wolff was born in St. Louis, raised in the middle-class neighborhood of University City, Mo., a St. Louis suburb, and followed Cardinal greats Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and Red Schoendienst and also the old St. Louis Browns -- including midget Eddie Gaedel and one-armed Pete Gray.

Wolff has degrees from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a fraternity brother of Bud Selig, now the baseball commissioner, and Washington University in St. Louis and broke into the real estate business in 1958 when he took a job as an appraiser for a nationally recognized firm based in St. Louis. As Shapiro recalls, "We'd go out weekends to measure exteriors of houses. I'd hold one end of the tape, and he'd hold the other. The difference was, he got paid. I didn't."

In 1961, Wolff's company sent him to Los Angeles to open a regional office, and he co-founded a real estate consulting firm two years later. His reputation as an urban developer grew immeasurably through the '60s, and he took on San Jose later in the decade, teaming with Phil DiNapoli to help redevelop the budding metropolis.

In the early '70s, Wolff joined 20th Century Fox as president of its realty and development company, managing its worldwide real estate investments. That's how he met Wayne Rogers, the actor who played Dr. "Trapper John" McIntyre on "M*A*S*H," which filmed at the Fox studio. Wolff left Fox in 1975 but remained an investment partner with Rogers.

"When we were filming 'M*A*S*H' in Studio 9, I'd go over and schmooze with Lew," Rogers said. "He was one of the few people around there with intelligence, and we got along well. Lew is a terrific operator. I'm not going to say he knows baseball or basketball, but he knows finance. He knows how to work with x and turn it into 2x. He's a very savvy guy."

When brokering deals, Wolff tends to find partners to put in most of the money while managing the investment himself. For example, Wolff is a part owner of the Fairmont hotels in San Francisco and San Jose, and one of his chief investors was Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi prince who attended Menlo College in the '70s and is listed as the fifth richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a $23.7 billion fortune.

"At some of these places," Wolff said, "I own the couch in the lobby."

In the A's deal, Wolff relied on Fisher to write the big check. Fisher is worth $1.7 billion, according to Forbes, and is the 165th richest person in the U.S. and 387th richest in the world.

Wolff isn't on Forbes' list of wealthiest Americans. The cutoff is $750 million. His son, Keith, who has an MBA from Harvard, is an executive in his father's business.

Thanks to Fisher, the A's now rank third richest among baseball ownership groups. That doesn't necessarily mean the payroll will skyrocket. One of the draws for Wolff was the team's efficiency. If the group had planned to pay exorbitant amounts for players, perhaps more of an effort would have been made to keep star pitchers Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, both traded away this past winter.

With Wolff owning the A's, speculation could grow that the team might move to San Jose. Wolff tried moving the Warriors to San Jose (before Chris Cohan gained control of the team) and joined campaigns to move the Giants to the South Bay, as far back as 1985.

Wolff said in January he'd honor what Major League Baseball deems as the Giants' territorial rights in the South Bay -- which Schott called "bogus" - - and remain "totally focused" on building a ballpark in Oakland.

Wolff initially came to the A's as a vice president in November 2003 and was given the chore of landing the team a new ballpark. At first, Wolff had an option to buy into the A's if a stadium deal reached fruition, and one possibility was buying out Hofmann. But Hofmann wouldn't sell his share unless Schott sold his, afraid he'd miss out on a lucrative deal if a Wolff-Schott ownership relocated.

So Schott agreed to sell his share and gave Wolff the option to buy the team outright.

"Obviously, he is a very successful businessman," Schott said of Wolff. "For the past two years, he has been working for the A's in evaluating the Bay Area sports market. I believe he will give Oakland the best opportunity of getting a new ballpark."

The Giants' position? Well, they voted to approve Wolff in Wednesday's conference call.

"From what we know, Lew Wolff will do an excellent job operating the franchise," Giants executive vice president Larry Baer said. "It's been good news in the last 12 years or so. The Giants and A's have been successful, and that's a good thing for Bay Area baseball."

Wolff might not want this known, but he actually participated in a Giants fantasy camp, where fans can make like major leaguers for a day or two. What other A's owner can say that and smile about it?

What happened

-- Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the sale of the A's on Wednesday.

-- Today, with the close of escrow, the sale will be complete. The price is $180 million.

-- The managing partner of the new ownership group is Lewis Wolff.

-- The majority of the team will be owned by John Fisher. He is the son of Gap founder Donald Fisher.

-- Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann bought the A's in 1995 for $72 million, according to Schott, also taking on $23 million in deferred salaries. Schott now is staying on as an owner, in an advisory role.

Through the years: the A's in Oakland

1968

Owner Charles O. Finley moves team from Kansas City to Oakland.

1972

The A's of Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Catfish Hunter win first of three straight World Series.

1981

Walter Haas Jr. buys team from Finley.

1988

The A's of Dave Stewart, Mark McGwire and Dennis Eckersley make first of three consecutive World Series appearances.

1989

A's sweep Giants in the earthquake-interrupted Series.

1995

Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann buy the team.

2000

The A's of Tim Hudson, Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada make first of four straight playoff appearances, losing in the first round each time.

2005

Major-league owners approve the sale of the A's to an ownership group led by Lewis Wolff and John Fisher.

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